quote: What is the least wattage power supply that would be used with these boards. For examples sake,the Abit board just reviewed ?

What CPU? Conroe/Pentium D and a X1900XT would still justify 500w range if you expect to upgrade to the next generation video card and also overclock. Conroe and a 7800GT as an example would be fine with a high quality 400~450w power supply and still allow decent headroom for overclocking.

quote: Whats the 'least' wattage power supply that you might use.? Considering you wouldn't be doing any of the tweaks,that is running the board at factory stats. [1]?

A high quality 400w power supply would be fine, depending on the 12V rails a 350w might suffice with zero overclocking and a 7600 / X1600 level video card, all of this depends on the number of drives, cooling, and cards you add-on.

quote: This board is going to cost how much ?

At this point, $140, probably come down $125 as more boards are introduced in this price range. Reply

Thanks for reply. Yes probably an Antech power supply. True Power,or Smart Power HE unit. Most of my regards in builds doesn't dismiss the overclocker market. Still it is good to know what the normal configuration will require.

I know you CONROE overclocking dedicated article is still on the way; I just wanted to mention I'm one among those who would rather see the E6600 results rather than the E6700 or other, if we have to choose one CPU only.

...Also, do you think an overclocking comparison between MEROM and CONROE ( and YONAH ) is coming in the future ?

Thanks for another great article; I'll be drooling until one of those chips is in my hands...

Right now, E6600 chips would top out at the same spot on most motherboards. The boards are holding back the E6700, not the CPU - except for the ASUS P5WDH, of course. So until the companies can get better OC'ing BIOS versions out, you're limited to 9x367 (roughly) with this Abit board.

As far as comparing Merom and Conroe overclocking, that will be a bit difficult since Merom is going to fit in a different socket and won't be available for a few months more. The most we got out of Yonah on the AOpen motherboard was about 2.8 GHz, Conroe is clearly the better choice for overall performance since high end cooling is allowing people to reach 4.0 GHz and beyond. Merom could be interesting in that it will have higher multipliers so you won't need the high FSB speed support, but the inability to run Merom chips in socket 775 boards means you'll have to go for something like the AOpen board we reviewed, which is very expensive, though granted it's about the same price as most of the 975X Conroe motherboards. Reply

Being able to look at Merom chips and laptops is one thing; being able to purchase them is another. We will do our best to bring you information as soon as possible, but I really don't expect Merom to be substantially faster/better than Conroe, and I really do expect socket 479 desktop motherboards to be more difficult to find. Reply

Is there is really any difference between the ab9 pro and the regular ab9 board other than some extra sata ports? The ab9 pro is out of stock now at newegg, so I was thinking of just getting the non pro board instead and saving a few bucks in the process. Reply

I cannot comment on this since we do not have a board yet. The obvious differences are in the SATA ports, RAID capabilities, ALC-883 on the AB9, single Gb Ethernet, and couple of other minor differences in board design. How well the ABP overclocks or its stock performance is unknown at this time although I asked Abit to respond to your question. :) Reply